DESCRIPTIVE LIST 103 



Remarks. Between the young and adult there is every stage of intergradation of color, 

 some specimens being irregularly marked with blue and white in about equal proportions. 

 Young birds are sometimes mistaken for Snowy Herons, but can always be distinguished by 

 the greenish yellow legs and slaty tips of the primaries. They breed in the white plumage. 

 (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Breeds from North Carolina southward; winters from South Carolina southward. 

 Formerly bred as far north as Indiana and New Jersey. 



Range in North Carolina. -Breeds in the coastal region, and after the breeding season the 

 young in the white plumage scatter all over the State during July and August. 



One of the most abundant herons in the State is the Little Blue. When hatched 

 it is white, and not until the summer of the second year does it acquire its blue 

 plumage. In central and western North Carolina it is most usually found in the 

 white phase. This is the common "Little White Crane" seen in July and August 

 inhabiting our streams and mill-ponds. While still wearing the white plumage of 

 youth, it mates and rears young, being one of the comparatively few birds with 

 this peculiarity. 



FIG. 67. LITTLE BLUE HERON. 



On April 30, 1898, Pearson found a colony nesting on Lake Head Island, in Mat- 

 tamuskeet Lake, Hyde County. The nests were built in cypress and willow trees, 

 at distances varying from fifteen to forty feet from the ground. One unusual fact 

 noted was that the trees were not standing in water, but on virtually dry ground. 

 Many eggshells with holes torn in one side were found scattered about the ground, 

 and the creators of this mischief were soon discovered in the form of a pair of Fish 

 Crows, which were seen making off with eggs in their bills. These black disturbers 

 are always found about heron colonies. 



At this date a large part of the hundred or more nests seen appeared to con- 

 tain eggs. Five nests were examined, all of which held four eggs. Four other nests 

 had five eggs each. No young birds were found; in fact, none of the eggs observed 

 seemed to be in an advanced stage of incubation. The heron life here appeared to 

 be typical of that found to exist in the other breeding colonies of these birds. The 

 same summer Pearson found the Little Blues associated numerously with the Louisi- 

 ana Herons in the colonies before mentioned as being in Carteret and Brunswick 

 counties. In 1909 H. H. Brimley discovered that about twenty pairs had estab- 

 lished themselves in the trees on the southern shore of Great Lake, in Craven 

 County. On June 18 all of the nests contained eggs, but two days later every egg 

 had disappeared. Their destruction was attributed to Fish Crows. 



